Western appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1885-18??, 1887-03-19
A BROKEN BRIDGE.

A passenger train of seven cars, oW-
ing,,to the breaking of a truck went througha
bridge near Forest Hill, on the Deadham
branch OF the Boston & Providence r. r.,
at Z. M, Monday morning. The baggage
car and three passenger cars passed in safe
ty and five coaches went down thirty-five
feet. 1t is stated that thirty three persons
were killed and forty injured, the conductor
OF the train being among the killed. The
bridge was new one and thought to be Sc
cure.
LATER train to which this ca
lamity occurred was the morning train
bringing suburban residents to Boston for
their daily business and employment The
number of those killed outright remains at
80, but the number injured is increased to
seventy. Upon inspection it is found that
there was flaw in one of the bridge trusses.
The bridge where the accident occurred was
built in July, 1878. It was 1O4 feet in length
and 20 feet in height, the rear resting on the
heavy stone walls. The grade of the road
is very he's heavy, and there is sharp curve
The latter runs diagonally under the
bridge, and the abutnents upon
which the structure stands are set at sharp
angles. The bridge was designed for a
double track, but only single track crosses
it now, and the experts cannot understand
the bearing comes upon only one. Mr.
Manley, OF the city engineer's office, made
careful inspection of the bridge soon
after it had fallen. He said there was no
apparent q, reason for its giving, way, or for
as if some force had drawn it forward and
thrown it from it's bearings. D. L. Davis,
of the Boston & Providence road, CON
sidered one of the best railroad men in the
country, expressed similar opinion. A
Mr.. Blaisdell, who was crossing from the
first to the second car just as the train
struck the bridge, says he observed broken
journal hanging down. This would account
for carrying the whole bridge off the
abutments. A bad flaw has been found
near the end of a twelve-inch truss which
rests few feet above the debris. It shows
diagonal fracture of the iron twelve
inches long, of which eight inches is black
with rust, while the rest of the fracture is
fresh. The scene at the bridge was terrible
In one place the bodies taken out were
placed in a row. All were badly mangled
train and many were to be seen in the
ruins. One woman was cut completely in
two-the upper half only being found
AS to the cause of the terrible disaster
the Engineering News of New York City
having sent experts to thoroughly investi-
gate the condition of the bridge publishes
IN its issue this week the following:
hangers which carried the last or most
easterly pair of floor beams Of the
northerly or last built truss, which carried
all the load. So far as can be judged by
outside appearances, they are made of far
from good iron to begin with, but in
addition to that they are of bad design and
most imperfectly welded. Again, they are
both badly fawed by old and deeply rnsted
breaks at the most strained sections, there
being two distinct breaks Of this kind to
each specimen.
The first hanger has both breaks across
the weld, the first break being complete,
and the second break an inch and half
above it, all but complete, the metal merel,
hanging together by the outside skin. This
hanger can never have done any work since
its original and now ancient fracture, or it
would have been broken apart long since
The second hanger was checked across half
OF its inside face covered by the supposed
weld) for about half its depth Of effective
section, and this was clearly where the frac-
ture first began. 1t caused secondary
fracture at second old break in the hook
OF the welded end, which cut off some
what large proportion of the effective
strength of the iron. More shamefully bad
specimens of bridge design, metal and
workmanship can hardly exist.